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Chapter 42SermC.1.42

Sermo 42

The Bride Speaks to the King’s Companions

Bernard introduces the bride’s words about her nard’s fragrance and explains that she speaks about the king in his absence, to his companions, after being gently rebuked.

While the king was at his table, my nard gave its fragrance.✦ These are the words of the bride, which we put off until today—the reply she gave when she was rebuked by the bridegroom, not to the bridegroom himself, however, but to his companions, as is easy to see from the words themselves. For since she doesn't say, as if addressing him in the second person, "While you were king at your table," but rather, "While he was at his table," it's clear that she isn't speaking to him, but about him. Suppose, then, that the bridegroom, after rebuking or restraining her as he saw fit, realized from the flush of her cheeks that she was ashamed, and withdrew so that she could speak more freely about what she was feeling in his absence; and also, if she had become more fearful than she should have been, as usually happens, and more downcast in spirit, the consolations of his companions would lift her up. Yet he didn't neglect to do this himself either, as much as he judged appropriate for the moment. For to make it clear how much that rebuke pleased him—since he felt it was accepted worthily and as it should have been—he certainly didn't withdraw before, out of the abundance of his heart (there is no doubt), he broke forth into praises of her, and extolled the beauty of her very cheeks and eyes.1 That's why those who remain with her speak tenderly to him and offer gifts, knowing the Lord's will. So her reply is directed to them.

Literal Sense and Spiritual Preparation

After noting the literal sense, Bernard turns to spiritual exegesis and reflects on the blessing and burden of rebuking others, especially when correction fails.

And that's how the literal weaving together of the figure stands. But before we begin to draw the kernel of the spirit from this shell, let me say one thing briefly. Happy is the one whose own rebuke lines up just as we have the outline of this present passage.2 If only it were more necessary to rebuke no one at all! For that would be better. But since we all offend in many ways, it is not permitted me to be silent, to whom rebuking sinners falls as a duty, but even more love compels it.3 But if I rebuke and do what is mine to do, yet that rebuke, as it goes out, does least of all what it ought, and not the purpose for which I sent it, but comes back to me empty, like a javelin striking and bouncing back — what do you think my heart holds then, brothers?4 Am I not distressed? Am I not tormented? And so that I might claim something from the Master's words — because I cannot speak from wisdom — I am pressed hard between two options, and I do not know which to choose: does it please me in what I have said, since I have done what I ought; or should I do penance over my word, because what I wished, I did not receive?5

When Rebuke Harms Instead of Heals

Failed correction is shown to wound the soul further, and Bernard stresses that rejection of lawful correction is rejection of Christ and the apostolic office.

Surely I wanted to destroy my enemy and rescue my brother — and I didn't do it; instead the opposite happened, for I wounded the soul and added to the fault, since contempt was added too. They don't want to listen to you, he says, because they don't want to listen to me. You see what majesty is being despised. Don't think I'm the only one you've rejected. The Lord has spoken; and what he said to the prophet, he also said to the apostles: 'Whoever rejects you, rejects me.' I'm not a prophet, I'm not an apostle — and yet I dare to say I serve in the role of both prophets and apostles, even though I'm not their equal in merit, I'm entangled in their cares; even if it means great shame for me, even if great danger to myself, I sit in the chair of Moses, whose life I don't claim for myself, and whose grace I don't experience. What then? Surely the office wouldn't be withheld from the chair just because it's been seized by someone unworthy?

Obedience to the Unworthy Teacher

Even when the one who teaches is unworthy, the office itself retains authority, echoing Christ’s words about the scribes and Pharisees in Moses’ seat.

Even if the scribes and Pharisees sit in that seat, he says, do what they say.✦

Impatience, Perversity, and Resentment of Healing

Bernard describes how impatience and contempt make the corrected person resent the healer, cling to sin, and add sin to sin by irrational anger.

Impatience often goes hand in hand with contempt, so that a person not only doesn't care about being corrected when reproved, but actually resents the one doing the reproving — like someone frantic pushing away the doctor's hand. A remarkable perversity! The one bringing healing is resented, yet the one shooting arrows is not! There is one who shoots in the dark at the upright in heart, who has now shot you yourself toward death — and you're not moved against him? You resent me — me, who want you to become whole! Be angry, he says, and do not sin. If you're angry at sin, you're not only not sinning at all — you're also destroying what you had sinned. But as it is, you cling to your sin while rejecting the medicine, and you add to sin by being irrationally angry — and the result is sinning beyond all measure, a sin upon sin.

Shameless Defense and Divine Abandonment

Shameless defense of sin is identified as despair, and Bernard warns that when God withdraws discipline and zeal, his silence is his greatest anger.

Several times, shamelessness is added as well, so that a person not only bears impatiently the fact of being rebuked, but even shamelessly defends the very thing for which he's reproached. That is outright despair. You have become, he says, like the brazen forehead of a prostitute; you refused to blush. And he says: My zeal has departed from you; I will no longer be angry with you. I tremble at the mere hearing of it. Do you realize how great a danger, how great a horror and trembling there is in defending your sin? He says again: Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline.✦ If then zeal has deserted you, and love, you will not be worthy of love, since you are judged unworthy of discipline. You see that God is most angry precisely when he does not show his anger.

Mercy, Discipline, and the Anger that Heals

Through scriptural images of Moses, Aaron, and Samuel, Bernard prays for God’s corrective anger rather than his merciful neglect, trusting that anger can be a form of favor.

Let us have mercy on the impious man, he says, and he will not learn to do justice.✦ This mercy I do not want.✦ Above all anger, this pity, encompassing for me the ways of justice.✦ It is certainly better for me, following the Prophet's counsel, to take hold of discipline, lest the Lord become angry and I perish from the right way.✦ I want you to be angry with me, Father of mercies; but that anger by which you correct the wandering, not that by which you drive them out of the way.✦ That kindly attention of yours produces this for us; this fearful neglect nourishes. For not when I do not know, but when I perceive you angry, then especially I trust you are propitious; and indeed when you have been angry, you will remember mercy.✦ God, he says, you were propitious to them, and avenging against all their devices.✦

Calling Good Evil and the Doom of the Impenitent

To defend error and accuse correction is to call good evil and evil good, giving birth to impenitence, despair, and the woe of eternal judgment.

He speaks of Moses, and Aaron, and Samuel, whom he had just sent ahead, and this he calls atonement — what is theirs. God did not spare their transgressions. Go now, then, and shut this out for yourself forever — defending error and accusing correction. Isn't that evil — to call good evil and evil good? Won't impenitence, the mother of despair, soon spring up from this hateful shamelessness? For who would repent over a good that he thinks he has done? Woe to them, he says. That eternal woe.

Temptation, Self-Deception, and the Pain of Ruined Correction

Bernard distinguishes between being tempted and willingly pursuing evil as good, and laments that open reproof sometimes causes greater ruin than silence would have.

It's one thing to be tempted—dragged off and enticed by your own desire; it's another to willingly pursue evil as though it were good, rushing toward death as though toward life, recklessly secure. For wrongdoing of this kind, I'd say I would rather at some point have kept quiet and concealed what I detected being done wrongly, than to have reproached it to such great ruin.

The Watchman’s Grief for a Spiritual Son

Using Ezekiel’s watchman imagery, Bernard says that even a clean conscience brings no comfort when one sees a spiritual son dying, and he contrasts self-seeking correction with maternal, selfless pastoral love.

You might perhaps say to me that my own good would come back to me — that because I set my soul free and am clean of human blood, the person I preached to and spoke with, so that he might turn from his wicked way and live.✦ But even if you pile on countless things like this, they'll bring me no comfort at all while I look on my son's death. As if I had really sought my own deliverance through that rebuke, and not rather his! For what mother — even if she knows she's devoted every care and attention she could to a sick son — if at last she sees herself disappointed and all her labors to have been completely ineffectual, while he nonetheless is dying, has therefore ever held back from weeping? And she does this for a temporal death; how much more must weeping and great lamentation remain for me over the eternal death of my son — even if I'm conscious of nothing on my part but that I did preach to him? You see too from how many evils in the region around him he frees both himself and us — the one who, when gently rebuked, answers back, yields modestly, obeys with restraint, and humbly confesses. To this soul I declare myself in all things a debtor; to this one I am a minister and servant, as to the most worthy bride of my Lord — and one who can truly say: 'While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance.'✦

Nard, Humility, and the Fragrance of Devotion

Humility is interpreted as the warm, fragrant nard: truth humbles by self-knowledge, but love inflames humility so that one willingly embraces lowliness before others.

It's a good fragrance of humility that rises from this valley of weeping and, poured out over all the surrounding regions, sprinkles even the royal couch with its welcome sweetness.✦ Nard is a humble plant, which those who have more carefully investigated the properties of herbs say is also of a warm nature. And so I don't think it's inappropriate to take the virtue of humility in this passage as the one that burns with the warmth of holy love. I say this with confidence because there is a humility that truth itself produces in us, and it has no warmth; and there is a humility that love shapes and sets ablaze. The first consists in feeling; the second, in understanding. For if you examine yourself inwardly by the light of truth, without pretense and without flattery, I have no doubt that you'll be humbled and, made cheaper in your own eyes through this true knowledge of yourself, you would not yet perhaps allow yourself to appear so in the eyes of others. You'll be humble, then — but for now only by the work of truth, and not at all yet by the outpouring of love. For if you'd been moved by love just as you were illuminated by the brightness of truth itself, which showed you to yourself truly and for your healing, you would have wanted, without a doubt, everyone to hold the same opinion of you that you know truth itself holds within you.

Discretion, Self-Love, and True Humility

Not all self-knowledge should be displayed; hiding truth for love’s sake is good, but keeping it hidden out of self-love is a failure to prefer truth to one’s own advantage.

Truly, I would say what is in you; since as a rule it doesn't help for everything we know about ourselves to become known to everyone, and by the love that comes from truth itself, and by the truth that comes from love, we're forbidden to want openly to become something that would harm the person recognizing it.67 Otherwise, if you're being held fast by a private love of yourself, and you keep the judgment of truth locked up within you — and who doubts that you love truth less when you prefer your own advantage or honor to it?89

Christ’s Chosen Humility of Heart

Christ’s humility was voluntary, not compelled by truth alone but by love, and he freely chose to be seen as least though he was highest.

So you see, it's not the same thing: a person is convicted by the truth of the light no longer to think highly of himself, and yet willingly sides with the lowly, helped by the gift of love. For the one is a matter of necessity; the other, of the will. He emptied himself, the Scripture says, taking the form of a servant, and handing over the form of humility.✦ He emptied himself, he humbled himself — not by the constraint of judgment, but by love for us. He could certainly have shown himself off as worthless and contemptible, but he chose not to think of himself that way, because he knew who he was. So he was humble by choice, not by compulsion; he offered himself as such, without pretending to be other than he was. And it pleased him to be thought least, though he knew full well he was highest. In short, he says: Learn from me, because I am meek and humble of heart.✦ He said 'heart' — with the heart's affection, that is, by will. And so he ruled out necessity, since he freely acknowledged the will. For the way you and I find ourselves in truth worthy of disgrace and contempt, worthy of every extremity and lowliness, worthy even of punishments, worthy of blows — not, I say, so was he; yet he experienced all these things, because he willed it, as one humble in heart: humble, I mean, with that humility which the heart's own affection persuaded, not that which the scrutiny of truth extorted.10

Voluntary Humility and the Emptied Christ

Voluntary humility flows from love, not truth’s reproof; Bernard links this to Christ’s self-emptying in Philippians 2 and urges the will to consent to the humility truth has already revealed.

So I've said that this display of voluntary humility is created, not by the reproof of truth, but by the outpouring of love within us — because it's a matter of the heart, of affection, of the will. Whether I'm right about that, you be the judge.11 And let this too be weighed by your own judgment: whether I should rightly assign that same Lord — whom love is known to have emptied, whom love made less than the angels, whom love made subject to parents, whom love bowed into the Baptist's hands, whom love suffered in the weakness of the flesh, whom love finally subjected to death, inglorious on a cross — to such a death.12 But there's one more thing for you to weigh: whether I was right to think that this very humility, burning with love — a lowly and warm herb, that is, nard — was signified by it.13 And if you test all these things and find them so — for you'll agree with the clearest reasoning — then, if you've already been humbled within yourself by that necessary humility which Truth, the searcher of hearts and minds, plants in the senses of a watchful soul: bring your will to bear, and make a virtue of necessity, since there's no virtue without the willing consent of the will.14 And this is how it'll happen: if you don't want to appear outwardly as someone other than you find yourself to be inwardly. Otherwise, be afraid of reading about yourself what was said of someone who acted deceitfully in God's sight, so that his wickedness would be exposed to his face: 'He who acts deceitfully in God's sight, so that his iniquity may be found to his face.'✦15 'Dishonest weight and dishonest weight are both an abomination to God.'16 What then?

Subjecting the Will to God and to Others

Rather than exalting oneself where truth humbles, one should submit the will completely to God, not merely in outward obedience but in heartfelt devotion.

In your own private self you belittle yourself, weighed on the scale of truth; yet out in the open, misrepresenting your worth as someone else's at a higher price, you sell yourself to us for more than you received from her. Fear God, and don't do this worst of things: that the one whom truth humbles, your own will should exalt. For to resist in this way is to set yourself against truth; to fight in this way is to fight against God. Instead, submit to God, and let your will be subject to truth — not merely subject, but devoted as well. Won't my soul, he says, be subject to God?✦

Humility Toward All and the Bride’s Fragrance

Perfect righteousness demands humility toward superiors, equals, and inferiors; willing humility gives forth the bride’s fragrance of devotion, while reluctant humility has no scent at all.

But it's not enough to be subject to God unless you're also subject to every human creature for God's sake — whether to an abbot, as to one who excels, or to superiors, as to those appointed by him. I go further: be subject to equals, and be subject to those beneath you. For this is what becomes us, he says: to fulfill all righteousness.✦ Go, then, to someone lesser, if you want to be perfect in righteousness; defer to an inferior, to a younger person, with yourself bowed low. For by doing this, you'll draw to yourself that very word of the bride which she spoke: My nard has given forth its fragrance.✦ The fragrance is devotion; the fragrance is a good reputation, which reaches everyone, so that you may be the fragrance of Christ in every place, admired by all, loved by all.✦ The humble person whom truth compels to humility cannot do otherwise, because they hold that fragrance within themselves and won't let it go out and give off its scent abroad, scattered outside. But the person who humbles themselves reluctantly has no fragrance at all, because they have no devotion — since they don't humble themselves willingly or gladly.

The Bride’s Willing, Lasting Humility

The bride’s humility is willing, enduring, and fruitful; untouched by praise or blame, it pleases God and, like Mary’s humility, is the only merit she claims before great grace.

The bride's humility, like nard, pours out its fragrance — burning with love, thriving in devotion, spreading its scent through a good name.✦ The bride's humility is willing, lasting, and fruitful. Its fragrance isn't driven away by criticism, nor by praise. She had heard: Your cheeks are beautiful like a dove's, and your neck like strings of jewels.✦ She had received the promise of golden adornment, and yet in humility she answers: the greater she hears herself praised, the more she humbles herself in every way. She doesn't boast in her merits, and among her own praises she doesn't forget the humility she humbly confesses under the name of nard — as though she were to say in the voice of the virgin Mary: I'm conscious of no merit in me for so great a favor, except that God looked upon the humility of his servant.✦ For what else does "my nard gave its fragrance" mean, except: My humility was pleasing?✦ Not my wisdom, she says, not my nobility, not my beauty — none of these were mine — but only the humility that was in me alone gave its fragrance, that is, its usual fragrance.

God Regards the Lowly and the Bride’s Confidence

God dwells on high yet regards humble things; therefore the bride, though poor in merits, dares to trust in humility and call the king merciful, confident that humility does not lose boldness before the throne.

Humility is always pleasing to God. The Lord on high looks down plainly and habitually on humble things, and so, when the king was on his couch—that is, in his high dwelling—the fragrance of humility rose there too. He dwells in the heights, it says, and regards humble things in heaven and on earth. So when the king was on his couch, the bride's nard gave its fragrance.✦ The king's couch is the Father's embrace, because the Son is always in the Father. And you shouldn't doubt that this king is merciful, whose eternal couch is the lodging of fatherly kindness. Rightly the cry of the humble rises up to him, for whom the fountain of tender devotion is a dwelling, for whom sweetness is familiar, for whom goodness is substantial — or rather, consubstantial: and so everything that is his comes from the Father, so that nothing at all in royal majesty is suspected of trembling except what is fatherly toward the humble.17 Finally: Because of the misery of the needy and the groan of the poor, now I will rise up, says the Lord.✦ Aware of these things, then, the bride — as one of the household and most dear — doesn't think she should be kept away from the bridegroom's favor by poverty of merits, presuming from humility alone. So finally she names him king, for as bridegroom she doesn't dare rebuke him, frightened as she is for the moment; and she confesses he dwells on high, yet even so humility doesn't lose confidence.

The Primitive Church and Pentecostal Fulfillment

Bernard applies the text to the early Church in prayer at Pentecost, seeing the frightened bride’s humility as then giving forth its fragrance and preparing for suffering under the image of myrrh.

You can adapt this discourse to the primitive Church without strain, if you recall those days when, after the Lord had been taken up from where he was before and was seated at the Father's right hand, the disciples were gathered in one place, persevering with one mind in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers. Does it not truly seem to you that the nard of that little trembling bride was giving forth its fragrance at that very time? And so, when suddenly a sound came from heaven, as of a mighty spirit arriving, and filled the whole house where they were sitting, could not the poor little one rightly say then: 'The king was at his couch, and my nard gave forth its fragrance'? It became clear to all who remained in that place how pleasing the fragrance of humility had been, and how well-pleasing it was, to which a response was soon given with such abundant and glorious reward. And yet she was not ungrateful for the gift. For hear how, filled with devotion at once, she prepares herself to endure every hardship for his name: for it follows, 'A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me; he will linger between my breasts.' My weakness, which you know, doesn't allow me to go any further. I say this only because the bitter trials spoken of under the name of myrrh, she declares she is ready to undergo, out of love for the beloved.

Prayer for Continued Understanding

Bernard closes by asking for the Spirit’s help to continue interpreting the bride’s words and offers a final doxology to Christ, the bridegroom of the Church.

We'll take up the rest of the chapter another time, if the Holy Spirit, entreated by you, will be present to help us understand the bride's words, which he himself formed by inspiring them, just as he knows what is fitting for the praise of the bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

Read the original Latin

Cum esset rex in accubitu suo, nardus mea dedit odorem suum. Haec sunt verba sponsae, quae in hodiernum diem distulimus; hoc responsum, quod dedit ubi increpata est a sponso, non tamen sponso, sed eius sodalibus: quod facile est advertere ex verbis ipsis. Cum enim non dicit, quasi ad secundam personam: Cum esses rex in accubitu tuo, sed: Cum esset in accubitu suo, patet quod non ad ipsum loquitur, sed de ipso. Puta proinde sponsum, ubi eam (quatenus visum fuit) aut corripuit, aut repressit, comperta ex suffusione genarum verecundia, cessisse loco, ut illa se absente loqueretur liberius quae sentiret; sed et si pavidior, ut assolet, quam oportuerit, et deiectior animo facta esset, sodalium eam consolationes erigerent. Quod tamen et per se ipsum facere non neglexit, quantum iudicavit pro tempore oportere. Nam ut clarum relinqueret quantum sibi in illa correptione complacuit, quippe quam sensit digne et prout oportuit acceptari, non sane ante se absentavit quam ex abundantia (quod non est dubium) cordis prorumperet in laudes eius, et genarum collique ipsius pulchritudinem commendaret. Propterea et qui cum ipsa remanent, blande loquuntur illi, et munera offerunt, scientes Domini voluntatem. Ad ipsos ergo responsio eius.

Et litteralis quidem contextio schematis ita se habet.

Sed priusquam ex hac testa nucleum spiritus elicere inchoemus, dico unum breviter. Felix, cui sua obiurgatio sic respondet, quemadmodum habemus formam praesentis loci. Utinam magis neminem obiurgare necesse sit! hoc enim melius. Sed quoniam in multis offendimus omnes, mihi tacere non licet, cui ex officio incumbit peccantes arguere, magis autem urget charitas. Quod si arguero et fecero quod meum est, illa autem increpatio procedens minime quod suum est faciat, neque id ad quod misi illam, sed revertatur ad me vacua, tanquam iaculum feriens et resiliens: quid me animi tunc habere putatis, fratres? Nonne angor, nonne torqueor? Et ut mihi usurpem aliquid ex verbis Magistri, quia de sapientia non possum; prorsus coarctor e duobus, et quid eligam nescio : placerene mihi in eo quod locutus sum, quoniam quod debui feci; an poenitentiam agere super verbo meo, quia quod volui, non recepi?

Volui nimirum perimere hostem, et eripere fratrem; et non feci sic, magis autem contrarium accidit: nam laesi animam, et culpam auxi, siquidem accessit et contemptus. Nolunt audire te, inquit, quia nolunt audire me. Vides quae maiestas contemnitur. Non te putes me solum sprevisse. Dominus locutus est; et quod dixit prophetae, dixit et apostolis: Qui vos spernit, ait, me spernit. Non sum propheta, non sum apostolus; et prophetae tamen et apostoli, audeo dicere, vice fungor: et quibus non aequor meritis, eorum implicor curis; etsi ad meam multam confusionem, etsi ad grande periculum mihi, super cathedram Moysi sedeo, cuius tamen non vindico mihi vitam, nec experior gratiam. Quid tamen? num ideo cathedrae non deferetur, quoniam occupata est ab indigno?

Etiamsi Scribae et Pharisaei in ea sedeant, inquit: Quae dicunt facite.

Plerumque etiam impatientia contemptui iungitur, ita ut aliquis non solum non curet corrigi obiurgatus, sed insuper obiurganti indignetur, more phrenetici manum medici repellentis. Mira perversitas! Medicanti irascitur, qui non irascitur sagittanti! Est enim qui sagittat in obscuro rectos corde, qui et te ipsum nunc sagittavit ad mortem; et in illum non commoveris? Mihi indignaris, qui sanum te fieri cupio? Irascimini, inquit, et nolite peccare. Si peccato irasceris, non solum minime peccas, sed et quod peccaras, exterminas. Nunc vero et peccatum retines medicamentum respuendo, et peccare apponis irrationabiliter irascendo; et est supra modum peccans peccatum.

Aliquoties additur et impudentia, ut non modo impatienter ferat quod corripitur, sed etiam id unde reprehenditur, impudenter defendat. Hoc plane desperatio. Frons, inquit, mulieris meretricis facta est tibi; noluisti erubescere : et ait: Recessit zelus meus a te, ultra non irascar tibi. Solo auditu contremisco. Sentisne quanti periculi, quantique horroris et tremoris res sit peccati defensio? Dicit iterum: Ego quos amo, arguo et castigo. Si ergo te zelus deseruit; et amor: nec eris amore dignus, qui indignus castigatione censeris. Vides quia tunc magis irascitur Deus, dum non irascitur.

Misereamur impio, inquit, et non discet facere iustitiam. Misericordiam hanc ego nolo. Super omnem iram miseratio ista, sepiens mihi vias iustitiae. Satius profecto mihi, iuxta Prophetae consilium, apprehendere disciplinam, nequando irascatur Dominus, et peream de via iusta. Volo irascaris mihi, Pater misericordiarum; sed illa ira, qua corrigis devium, non qua extrudis de via. Illud tua nobis benigna animadversio parit, hoc formidolosa nutrit dissimulatio. Non enim cum nescio, sed cum sentio te iratum, tunc maxime confido propitium: etenim cum iratus fueris, misericordiae recordaberis. Deus, inquit, tu propitius fuisti eis, et ulciscens in omnes adinventiones eorum.

Moysen loquitur et Aaron, atque Samuelem, quos modo praemiserat; et hoc vocat propitiationem, quod eorum. Deus non pepercit excessibus. I nunc tu ergo, atque hanc tibi excludito in aeternum, defendendo errorem, et accusando correptionem. An non istud est malum dicere bonum, et bonum malum? In non ex hac odiosa impudentia pullulabit mox impoenitentia, mater desperationis? Quem enim poeniteat super bono quod putat? Vae illis inquit. Vae istud aeternum est.

Aliud est quemque tentari a propria concupiscentia abstractum et illectum; et aliud sponte appetere malum tanquam bonum, ad mortem quasi ad vitam male securum properare. Pro huiusmodi, dico, mallem aliquando tacuisse et dissimulasse quod agi perperam deprehendi, quam ad tantam reprehendisse perniciem.

Dicas forsan mihi, quod bonum meum, ad me revertatur, et quia liberavi animam meam, et mundus sum a sanguine hominis, cui annuntiavi et locutus sum, ut averteretur a via sua mala, et viveret. Sed etsi innumera talia addas, me tamen minime ista consolabuntur, mortem filii intuentem. Quasi vero meam illa reprehensione liberationem quaesierim, et non magis illius! Quae enim mater, etiamsi omnem quam potuit curam et diligentiam aegrotanti filio adhibuisse se sciat, si demum frustratam se viderit, et omnes labores suos esse penitus inefficaces, illo nihilominus moriente, propterea unquam a fletibus temperavit? Et illa quidem hoc pro morte temporali; quanto magis me pro morte aeterna mei filii manet utique ploratus et ululatus multus, etiamsi nihil mihi conscius sum, quominus annuntiaverim illi? Vides etiam a quantis e regione malis et se, et nos liberat, qui correptus mansuete respondet, verecunde acquiescit, modeste obtemperat, humiliter confitetur. Huic ego animae in omnibus me profitear debitorem, huic me ministrum et servum, tanquam dignissimae Domini mei sponsae, et quae revera dicere possit: Cum esset rex in accubitu suo, nardus mea dedit odorem suum.

Bonus humilitatis odor, qui de hac valle plorationis ascendens, perfusis circumquaque vicinis regionibus, ipsum quoque regium accubitum grata suavitate respergat. Est nardus humilis herba, quam et calidae ferunt esse naturae hi qui herbarum vires curiosius explorarunt. Et ideo per hanc videor mihi non inconvenienter hoc loco virtutem humilitatis accipere, sed quae sancti amoris vaporibus flagret. Quod, propterea sane dico, quoniam est humilitas quam nobis veritas parit, et non habet calorem: et est humilitas quam charitas format et inflammat. Atque haec quidem in affectu, illa in cognitione consistit. Etenim tu, si temetipsum intus ad lumen veritatis et sine dissimulatione inspicias, et sine palpatione diiudices; non dubito quin humilieris et tu in oculis tuis, factus vilior tibi ex hac vera cognitione tui, quamvis necdum fortasse id esse patiaris in oculis aliorum. Eris igitur humilis, sed de opere interim veritatis, et minime adhuc de amoris infusione. Nam, si veritatis ipsius, quae te tibi veraciter atque salubriter demonstravit, sicut splendore illuminatus, ita affectus amore fuisses; voluisses procul dubio, quod in te est, eamdem de te omnes tenere sententiam, quam ipsam apud te veritatem habere cognoscis.

Sane, Quod in te est dixerim; quoniam plerumque non expedit innotescere omnibus omnia quae nos scimus de nobis, atque ipsa veritatis charitate, et charitatis veritate vetamur palam fieri velle quod noceat agnoscenti. Alioquin, si privato amore tui tentus detines pariter intra te iudicium veritatis inclusum, cui dubium est minus te veritatem diligere, cui proprium praefers vel commodum, vel honorem?

Vides igitur non esse id ipsum, hominem de se ipso non altum iam sapere, veritate luminis redargutum; et humilibus sponte consentire, munere charitatis adiutum. Illud enim necessitatis est, hoc voluntatis. Semetipsum exinanivit, inquit, formam servi accipiens, et formam humilitatis tradens. Ipse se exinanivit, ipse se humiliavit, non necessitate iudicii, sed nostri charitate. Poterat nimirum vilem se et contemptibilem demonstrare, sed plane non reputare, quoniam sciebat se ipsum. Voluntate proinde humilis fuit, et non iudicio, qui talem se obtulit, qualem se esse nescivit; magis autem placuit minimum reputari, qui se summum non ignorabat. Denique ait: Discite a me quia mitis sum et humilis corde. Corde dixit, cordis affectu, id est voluntate.

Itaque necessitatem exclusit, qui voluntatem confessus est. Non enim quomodo ego vel tu invenimus nos in veritate dignos dedecore et contemptu, dignos omni extremitate et inferioritate, dignos etiam suppliciis, dignos plagis; non, inquam, ita et ille: quae tamen omnia expertus est, quia voluit, tanquam humilis corde; humilis videlicet illa humilitate, quam cordis suasit affectio, non quam extorsit discussio veritatis.

Propterea dixi, hanc voluntariae humilitatis speciem, non redargutione veritatis, sed charitatis intra nos infusione creari, quia cordis est, quia affectionis, quia voluntatis: an vero recte, tu iudica. Itemque etiam hoc tuo aeque examinetur iudicio, dignene eamdem Domino assignarim, quem charitate constat exinanitum, charitate minoratum ab angelis, charitate parentibus subditum, charitate Baptistae manibus inclinatum, charitate carnis infirma passum, charitate postremo morti obnoxium, cruce inglorium exstitisse. Sed et hoc unum adhuc tui sit considerare arbitrii, rectene etiam hanc ipsam humilitatem ita charitate calentem, herba humili et calida, id est nardo, putaverim designatam. Et si ita cuncta probaveris (probabis enim rationi manifestissimae acquiescens) tunc si iam apud te ipsum humiliatus es necessaria illa humilitate, quam scrutans corda et renes Veritas sensibus ingerit animae vigilantis; adhibe voluntatem, et fac de necessitate virtutem, quoniam nulla est virtus sine convenientia voluntatis. Sic autem fiet istud, si nolis alter apparere foris, quam te invenis intus. Alioquin time, ne de te ipso legas: Quoniam dolose egit in conspectu eius, ut inveniatur iniquitas eius ad odium. Pondus, inquit, et pondus abominatio est apud Deum. Quid enim?

tu te depretiaris in secreto apud te ipsum, veritatis trutina ponderatus; et foris alterius pretii mentiens, maiori te pondere vendis nobis, quam ab ipsa accepisti? Time Deum, et noli hanc rem pessimam facere, ut quem humiliat veritas, extollat voluntas: hoc enim resistere est veritati, hoc pugnare contra Deum. Magis autem acquiesce Deo, et sit voluntas subdita veritati; nec tantum subdita, sed et devota. Nonne Deo, inquit, subiecta erit anima mea?

At parum est esse subiectum Deo, nisi sis et omni humanae creaturae propter Deum; sive abbati, tanquam praecellenti; sive prioribus, tanquam ab eo constitutis. Ego plus dico, subdere paribus, subdere et minoribus. Sic enim decet nos, inquit, omnem implere iustitiam. Vade et tu ad minorem, si vis in iustitia esse perfectus; defer inferiori iuniori te inclinato. Hoc enim faciens, trahes et ipse ad te sponsae sermonem quem dixit: Quia nardus mea dedit odorem suum. Odor devotio est, odor bona opinio, quae ad omnes pervenit, ut Christi sis bonus odor in omni loco, spectabilis omnibus, amabilis omnibus. Non potest hoc ille humilis, quem veritas ad humilitatem cogit; quoniam sibi habet illam, et exire non patitur, ut sparsa foris redoleat. Magis autem non habet odorem, quia non habet devotionem, utpote qui non sponte, neque libenter se humiliat.

Sponsae vero humilitas, tanquam nardus, spargit odorem suum, amore calens, devotione vigens, opinione redolens. Sponsae humilitas voluntaria est, perpetua est, fructifera est. Odor eius nec reprehensione exterminatur, nec laude. Audierat: Pulchrae sunt genae tuae sicut turturis, et collum tuum sicut monilia. Acceperat et repromissionem ornatus aurei, et nihilominus tamen cum humilitate respondet: et quanto maiorem se audit, tanto humiliat se in omnibus. Non gloriatur in meritis, nec inter laudes suas humilitatis obliviscitur, quam et humiliter confitetur sub nardi nomine; ac si voce virginis Mariae dicat: Nullius mihi meriti conscia sum ad tantam dignationem, nisi quod respexit Deus humilitatem ancillae suae. Nam quid est aliud, nardus mea dedit odorem suum, quam: Placuit mea humilitas? Non mea, inquit, sapientia, non mea nobilitas, non mea pulchritudo, quae nulla erant mihi, sed quae sola inerat humilitas dedit odorem suum, id est solitum.

Solito placet Deo humilitas; solito plane atque ex consueto excelsus Dominus humilia respicit: et ideo, cum esset rex in accubitu, id est in excelso habitaculo suo, illuc quoque humilitatis odor ascendit. In altis habitat, inquit, et humilia respicit in coelo et in terra.

Ergo, cum esset rex in accubitu suo, nardus sponsae dedit odorem suum. Accubitus regis, sinus est Patris; quia semper in Patre Filius. Nec dubites regem hunc esse clementem, cui perennis accubitus est paternae benignitatis diversorium. Merito clamor humilium ascendit ad eum, cui fons pietatis est mansio, cui familiaris suavitas, cui substantialis, vel potius consubstantialis bonitas est: cui ideo totum quod est, de Patre est, ut nil prorsus in regia maiestate, nisi paternum, humilium trepidatio suspicetur. Denique: Propter miseriam inopum et gemitum pauperum nunc exsurgam, dicit Dominus. Horum igitur conscia sponsa, utpote domestica atque charissima, non se putat arcendam sponsi gratia penuria meritorum, sola de humilitate praesumens. Regem denique nominat, nam sponsum interim territa increpatione non audet; et in alto habitare fatetur, nec sic tamen diffidit humilitas.

Primitivae Ecclesiae potes hunc congruentis sine aptare sermonem, si recordaris dies illos, quibus, assumpto Domino ubi erat prius, et sedente in dextera Patris, illo suo antiquo nobili atque glorioso accubitu, discipuli erant congregati in loco uno, perseverantes unanimiter in oratione cum mulieribus et Maria matre Iesu, et fratribus eius. Nonne tibi videtur revera tunc temporis nardum parvulae et trepidantis sponsae dare odorem suum? Denique, cum factus est repente de coelo sonus, tanquam advenientis spiritus vehementis, et replevit totam domum ubi erant sedentes, an non merito paupercula tunc dicere potuit: Cum esset rex in accubitu suo, nardus mea dedit odorem suum? Patuit pro certo omnibus in loco manentibus, quam gratus humiliatis, et quam beneplacitus odor ascenderat, cui mox tam copiosa et gloriosa remuneratione responsum est. Caeterum illa non ingrata beneficii fuit. Audi enim quomodo mox repleta devotione parat se ad omnia mala perferenda pro nomine eius: nam sequitur: Fasciculus myrrhae dilectus meus mihi, inter ubera mea commorabitur. Infirmitas mea, quam nostis, non sinit ulterius progredi. Hoc solum dico, quia tribulationum amaritudines sub myrrhae nomine dicit se subire paratam amore dilecti.

Reliquum capituli alias prosequemur, si tamen exoratus a vobis Spiritus sanctus adfuerit, qui nos intelligere faciat verba sponsae, quae ipse inspirando formavit, sicut novit illius, cuius ipse Spiritus est, laudibus convenire, sponsi Ecclesiae Iesu Christi Domini nostri, qui est super omnia Deus benedictus in saecula. Amen.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Song.1.12 — While the king was at his table, my nard gave forth its fragrance.
  2. ↩Matt.23.3 — Therefore, whatever they tell you, do and observe; but do not do according to their works, for they say and do not do.
  3. ↩Prov.3.12 — For the LORD reproves the one he loves, as a father delights in his son.
  4. ↩Isa.27.4 — Fury is not in me. Who would give me thorns and briers in battle? I would march against them and burn them all together.
  5. ↩Exod.33.3 — to a land flowing with milk and honey, for I will not go up among you, for you are a stiff-necked people, lest I consume you on the way.
  6. ↩Ps.102.20 — For he looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven to earth he gazed—
  7. ↩Ps.2.10 — And now, O kings, be wise; be warned, O judges of the earth.
  8. ↩2Cor.1.3 — Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
  9. ↩Hab.3.2 — LORD, I have heard your report; I stand in awe, LORD. Your work—revive it in the midst of the years; in the midst of the years make it known. In wrath remember mercy.
  10. ↩Ps.98.8 — Let the rivers clap their hands; let the mountains sing together in joy.
  11. ↩Ezek.3.18-Ezek.3.19 — When I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and you do not warn him, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life—that wicked person shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from your hand. Ezek.3.19 — But if you warn the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.
  12. ↩Song.1.12 — While the king was at his table, my nard gave forth its fragrance.
  13. ↩Song.1.12 — While the king was at his table, my nard gave forth its fragrance.
  14. ↩Phil.2.7 — but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness, and appearing as a human being.
  15. ↩Matt.11.29 — Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
  16. ↩Ps.35.2 — Take up shield and buckler, and rise up to help me.
  17. ↩Ps.61.6 — For you, O God, have heard my vows; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.
  18. ↩Matt.3.15 — But Jesus answered him, "Permit it now, for it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he permitted him.
  19. ↩Song.1.12 — While the king was at his table, my nard gave forth its fragrance.
  20. ↩2Cor.2.15 — For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.
  21. ↩Song.1.12 — While the king was at his table, my nard gave forth its fragrance.
  22. ↩Song.4.1-Song.4.2 — Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats that have descended from Mount Gilead. Song.4.2 — Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn ewes that have come up from the washing, all of which bear twins, and not one among them is bereaved.
  23. ↩Luke.1.48 — For he has looked upon the lowliness of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed.
  24. ↩Song.1.12 — While the king was at his table, my nard gave forth its fragrance.
  25. ↩Song.1.12-Song.1.13 — While the king was at his table, my nard gave forth its fragrance. Song.1.13 — A sachet of myrrh is my beloved to me; between my breasts he will lie.
  26. ↩Ps.12.5 — Because they say, 'With our tongue we will prevail; our lips are with us—who is lord over us?'

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The rare term 'collique' is rendered as 'eyes' following the standard identification with the Vulgate's 'oculorum' in Song 1:15, though the exact Latin etymology remains uncertain.
  2. 2 ↩The image is of a rebuke matching a spiritual 'form' or pattern drawn from the present scriptural context; 'formam praesentis loci' is figurative, not a technical term.
  3. 3 ↩charitas rendered as 'love' here, though the virtue sense is active; 'love' keeps it plain while carrying the duty-driven force.
  4. 4 ↩The javelin image describes a rebuke that fails to land and rebounds emotionally on the speaker; 'quod suum est' and 'id ad quod misi illam' express the rebuke's intended effect.
  5. 5 ↩The speaker is torn between accepting his faithful effort and repenting for its fruitlessness; 'poenitentiam agere super verbo meo' implies sorrow over the outcome of his speech.
  6. 6 ↩The paired ablatives 'veritatis charitate' and 'charitatis veritate' express a mutual interior formation: truth gives rise to love, and love gives rise to truth. The order is deliberately chiastic.
  7. 7 ↩'quoniam' rendered as 'since' with causal force; 'atque' coordinates the two ablative phrases of means/cause rather than independent clauses.
  8. 8 ↩'tentus' (perfect passive participle of tendo) carries the sense of being stretched or held fast; 'detines' (passive of detineo) reinforces the idea of being restrained or kept within. The two participles frame the condition as a state of being bound by self-directed love.
  9. 9 ↩'vel ... vel' rendered as 'or' with simple disjunction; 'alioquin' rendered as 'Otherwise' with inferential force.
  10. 10 ↩The contrast is between humility freely embraced (voluntary) and the shame that truth's judgment might otherwise impose. Affectio cordis is rendered 'the heart's own affection' to preserve the interior, voluntary quality; discussio veritatis as 'the scrutiny of truth' captures the forceful, almost judicial sense of extorsit.
  11. 11 ↩The threefold 'quia' (because it is of the heart, of affection, of the will) is rendered with parallel phrasing to preserve the rhetorical force without over-translating.
  12. 12 ↩The repeated 'charitate' anaphora is rendered with 'whom love...' clauses to preserve the rhetorical accumulation. 'Cruce inglorium exstitisse' is taken as belonging to the final clause — love subjected him to a cross, a death without glory.
  13. 13 ↩The parenthetical 'id est nardo' (that is, nard) is rendered as an appositive. The image of humility as 'herba humili et calida' (a lowly and warm herb) is connected to the nard (spikenard) of the Song of Songs, a traditional mystical symbol.
  14. 14 ↩'Scrutans corda et renes Veritas' (Truth, who searches hearts and minds) is a quasi-personification echoing Psalm 139 / Jeremiah 17. 'Fac de necessitate virtutem' is a proverbial-sounding maxim, rendered to keep its crisp force.
  15. 15 ↩The Latin quotes 'Quoniam dolose egit in conspectu eius, ut inveniatur iniquitas eius ad odium' — this appears to echo Psalm 35:2 (Vulgate) or a similar psalm, but the final phrase 'ad odium' diverges from standard Vulgate readings. Status unresolved pending Moses resolution.
  16. 16 ↩The Latin 'Pondus et pondus abominatio est apud Deum' appears to be a compressed or altered echo of Proverbs 20:10 ('Diverse weights, and diverse measures, both these are abomination to the Lord') and/or Proverbs 20:23. The repetition 'pondus et pondus' may reflect a textual variant or rhetorical emphasis. Pending Moses resolution.
  17. 17 ↩The string of relative clauses with 'cui' piles up epithets for God; 'substantialis, vel potius consubstantialis bonitas' plays on the Nicene language to stress the Son's goodness as one with the Father's. 'Paternum' is read as neuter accusative modifying the implied 'trembling' or disposition: fatherly toward the humble.

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